Chris Ziegler at This is My Next has a post up about potential “Windows Phone 7.5” branding for Microsoft’s big mobile software update this fall. This is based on a section of the Microsoft Partner Network website, which at one point said “Preview the new Windows Phone OS 7.5.”
Ziegler thinks “7.5” could be Microsoft’s way of marketing updated software to consumers, but I disagree for one reason: Microsoft stopped using numbers in its branding a long time ago. “Windows Phone 7” is a term we techies use, and it’s presumably what Microsoft uses internally, but ever since the first smartphones launched in October 2010, it’s been “Windows Phone,” pure and simple. The proof is in the very first TV ad campaign, and in Microsoft’s own website.
If breakfast cereals were named like technology products, there would be no Cocoa Krispies or Cheerios.